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DR. POTTER'S 



; 



iiiiiitii, 



PRO.NOCNCED AT 



iCHENECTADY. JULY 22, 1S45 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE FOe.VDATlON OF 

UiNION COLLEtiE, 

/ 
/ 

BY A. POTTER, D. D. 

Late FTof'iss-CT of Lloral IliiloscpriT- in said Ccilege, 
4 ^ . 

/ 

SCHENECTADY: 

I. RIGCtS, PRDsTER— STATE-STREET, 

184.5. 






To render several allusions in this Discourse intelligible to the distant 
reader, it may be proper to state, that it was preceded, in the exercises of the 
day, by an Address from the Rev. JosKrn SwEetman, the first as well as the 
oldest living Graduate of Union College. It is also proper to state, that in deliv- 
ering the Discourse two or three paragraphs were omitted for want of time. 



DISCOURSE. 



Man has but a short time to live on the earth ; but he has 
sentiments and aspirations, that prompt him to give an ideal ex- 
tension to his existence here — to lengthen out his narrow spaa. 
Through deeds the memory of which he hopes will survive him ; 
through societies natural or artificial with which he allies him- 
self j through influences which will live and operate long after 
he is in his grave, he anticipates a species of earthly immortali- 
ty. Nor is he content with thus taking bonds of the future. His 
aspirations lead him to connect himself with the past ; to live 
over the years allotted to preceding generations. Hence the 
profound interest with which he dwells on the events of his- 
tory ; hence the pride with which he claims kindred with 
families, churches, or nations, that have been long and honorably 
known ; and hence the enthusiasm with Avhich, on a day like 
this, he renews his bonds of fellowship with Alma Mater, and 
claims part in an Institution that has lived through one lengthen- 
ed term of years — that is destined, he trusts, to live for ever. 
The past has sent down its influences on him — he is to send 
down his influences on the future. By connecting himself with 
both, through a society or body corporate that never dies, he 
seems to vindicate the dignity of his nature. He indulges the 
hope — the fond desire for a deathleso existence, which, forming 



2 

one of his noblest instincts, points at the same time, with solemn 
significance, to reversions of weal or woe that await him after 
death. 

Standing midway between the opening and the close of the 
first century of our Collegiate history, we feel most vividly this 
power which we have of translating ourselves into different peri- 
ods of time — of multiplying, as it were, our term of life. With our 
venerable brother, we have gone back to the feeble beginnings of 
our College. We have trembled at the dangers and have sym- 
pathised with the toils and trials of those who, through God's good 
hand, were enabled to bring it into life. We turn in thought to 
the young men who are here to-day, as he was here fifty years 
ago — undergraduates — full of youth, and health, and hope. We 
go forward with them as they leave these halls ; as they do battle 
with the trials and temptations of life ; as they fall one after 
another by the way, till a small remnant, weary and way worn, 
with bended forms and silvered locks, they come up again, at the 
expiration of another fifty years, to the great Centennial Jubilee ; 
and we mingle with them as they join the throngs which shall 
then crowd these portals and pour along these streets. Thus, in 
the eldest and youngest of our family, do we seem to see one 
hundred years of College life, with all its manifold vicissitudes, 
brought within the compass of the present hour. We seem to 
stand at a great cross-road, in the journey of life, where travelers 
come from different and opposite quarters; some rushing forward 
to assume the burdens and labors of the way — others advancing 
with slow and feeble step to lay them down. Greetings are ex- 
changed, reports are made, hopes and fears are uttered, and the 
crowd disperses to lose itself amid the unnumbered multitudes 
that throng life's ways. 

A more interesting, perhaps a more eventful, hour can hardly 
occur in our academic history. Much, indeed, to look back 
upon, we have not ; but we have a wide world spread out to be 
peopled by our visions of the future. Our honored mother has 



3 

lived through two score years and ten : she has thus vindicated 
her power and her right to live. She has encountered storms. 
She has sometimes been parched by unfriendly droughts. She 
has seen one after another of her husbandmen, stricken down by 
death. She has had to struggle with something of neglect, with 
something of misapprehension. But her way has still been up- 
ward ; her roots have struck deeper and deeper ; her branches, 
as you can bear me witness, have spread over the land ; and 
among older and prouder monarchs of the forest, she may there- 
fore demand, to-day, a place and a name. Her very youth is her 
boast, as it is her ground of hope. She has not become inflexible 
through age. She is not proof against the salutary spirit of pro- 
gress, but w^aits to gain new accessions of strength. Like one of 
the ingenuous young men who come to sit beneath her shade, she 
is deeply interesting for tchat she is, as compared with ichat she 
was ; she is yet more interesting for what she may be, as compar- 
ed with what she is. Fifty years ago a puny infant — to-day a 
vigorous matron — fifty years hence, we fondly trust, the ma- 
jestic, honored mother of honored thousands. 

How eventful the fifty years now ended ! We look back to 
the day our brother has described. Memory reproduces the long 
road through which he has traveled since ; but the multitudes that 
started wuth him, or have been his companions, where are they ? 
Of the two hundred and thirty-one benefactors of the College, 
who subscribed the first fund for its endowment, not more than 
four or five are now alive. Of the fifteen who, in March, 1795, 
put their names to the written application, on which the Regents 
of the University granted the charter, the youngest alone sur- 
vives.* Of the twenty-four persons named in that charter, as 
the first Trustees, there is, also, but one survivor.f Of those 

*Abrahaji Van Ingex, Esq. of Schenectady, whose father. Dr. Dirck Van 
IxGEN, was the first Treasiirer of the College, and one of its earliest and most 
active friends. 

tHon. James Cochran, now of Oswego, but then a resident on the banks of 
the Mohawk. Mr. Cochran was a member of the House of Repreaentatiyes in 



Trustees who first met to organize the College, there is no sur- 
vivor; nor of those who, ten years later, were present when the 
officer who now presides over it, was chosen. The Institution 
has had fifty-six Trustees who held their places by election ; for- 
ty-one of them have gone the way of all the earth. It has had 
four Presidents, three of whom are numbered with the dead ; 
twenty-one Professors, of whom nine are dead, and thirty-five 
Tutors, of whom ten are dead. Of its Graduates, amounting to 
something more than twenty-five hundred, all of whom left Col- 
lege in youth or early manhood, nearly five hundred are known 
to have paid the debt to nature, and others are almost daily fall- 
ing. Even since invitations to this festival were issued — nay, 
since the notes of preparation have been sounding, the death- 
knell has rung over more than one of our number, whom we 
hoped to have met here. John Reed, who, forty years ago went 
hence, bearing the highest honors of his class, and who has la- 
bored nearly ever since, with all a Pastor's zeal, affection and 
prudence, in the same community, has just been borne to his last 
home amidst the tears and regrets of thousands : while far off, 
beyond our great inland seas, a youth over whose childhood 
the same venerable pastor invoked blessings, who but one short 
year since graduated here with distinguished promise, who was 
just starting on the race of life, full of high purpose and gen- 
erous ardour ; he, too, Williaji Davies Tallmadge, has been 
smitten down, and his parents — one of whom* left here thirty 
years since — now mourn in solitude over blighted prospects and 
a desolated home. 

If you look beyond our Alma Mater to the great world with- 
out, it is the same. Remorseless death has been busy every 
where. The parents of our younger and brighter years ; the 

the sixth Congress, and he informs me that, of one hundred and six members of 
that body, there are but two now living, besides himself, Albert Gallatin and 
Harrison Gray Otis. Mr. Cochran and 3Ir. Van Ingen were both present at 
the anniversary'. 

*Hon. Nathaniei. P. TALLMAnGK, late of the United States Senate. 



brothers and sisters ■who used to greet us so kindly, as we has- 
tened, in vacations, to our homes ; the friends and companions 
with whom, at school or in early youth, we communed so inti- 
mately and with sympathies so deep, how many of them are ten- 
ants of the tomb ! How few hearts within these walls have 
escaped the deep wounds that come of domestic bereavement ; 
and when memory invokes the friends of the past, is it not to the 
insatiate grave that many of us must look for more than half of 
them ? So when we look to the illustrious names that attracted 
the world's homage, when our College first began its humble 
career. Geoege WASHE>fGTON was then guiding our national 
councils, through the perplexities and perils occasioned by the 
civil convulsions in France. Jokn' Ada3is, Alexandek HAjynLTON, 
Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, Jajies Madison, Robert R. Lit- 

mOSTON, GoUVEENErB. MOREIS, WlLLIA3I PiTT, ChAELES JaJVIES 

Fox, were in the fulness of their strength. That soldier of for- 
tune, who shot up like a meteor from an island of the sea ; whose 
orb enlarged as he ascended, until he seemed to impend over the 
civilized world, threatening destruction to universal freedom, and 
to the independence of every power in Europe, — he had not yet 
startled and fixed the gaze of mankind. And yet where are they 
all now ? — The majestic form of Washington was laid — too soon 
for us, but not too soon for his owti fame — in a grave bedewed 
with a nation's tears; one after another, his compatriots and 
eminent contemporaries, were given back as dust to their kindred 
dust. And on a barren rock, in a far distant ocean, he died a 
lonely captive, before whom monarchs had trembled, and nations 
in all their pomp and power, had grown pale. 

But the record is not all of death. Look again, and the dead 
reappear ; some in their works of justice, patriotism or philanthro- 
py that survive ; others in their evil deeds, sometimes overruled 
by an inscrutable Providence for good, yet often sending down a 
malignant influence from generation to generation. They reap- 
pear too, in their posterity who have inherited their principles, and 



are trained to carry forward their labors. As we gaze down the 
long and dim vista through which our friend has passed, we seem 
to see that where one falls, more than one rises to occupy his 
place and fulfill his work. Five hundred of our family have in- 
deed died; but four times five hundred are alive. Instead of the 
three who made up the first graduating class, we have had 
groups of more than an hundred, who have retired from this 
place, with college honors, in a single year. It is believed that 
not less than three thousand two hundred names have been en- 
rolled on the college registry ; hundreds having retired before 
their full course was completed. And what has happened here, 
is but the index of what has happened throughout the land, and 
throughout the world. When Union College was chartered, there 
was but one similar Institution in the state — there are now five, 
besides three Medical Schools and four Theological Seminaries. 
At that day the whole number of college students in the state, was 
not more than one hundred — it is now six hundred. Then there 
were twelve Academies — now there are one hundred and seventy- 
four. Then this College was established, in order (to borrow the 
language of the day) to educate young men for the northern and 
western parts of the state, by which the petitioners usually under- 
stood only the counties of Saratoga and Washington on the north, 
and Montgomery, Schoharie, Herkimer and Oneida on the west. 
Beyond Fort Stanwix, (now called Rome) over all the expanse 
that stretches thence to Niagara, there were probably not two 
thousand white inhabitants — now there are more than a million. 
Then bands of Indians continued to roam over their old and che- 
rished haunts, and the feeble settlers were full of apprehension. 
Now Western New- York is a hive from which swarms of white 
men go out each year, to dispossess the natives that linger about 
the base of the Rocky Mountains, and hunt the bufialo from the 
farthest prairies. Now two Colleges, a Medical School, two Theo- 
logical Seminaries, have risen in that part of the state, to supply 



wants of which, litty years ago, the most sagacious scarcely 
dreamed. How true the words of our own poet: 
Look now abroad — another race has filled 
These populous borders — wide the wood recedes 
And towns shoot up and fertile realms are tilled ; 
The land is full of harvests and green meads ; 
Streams numberless that many a fountain feeds. 
Twine, disembowered, and give to sun and breeze 
Their virgin waters ; the full region leads 
New Colonies forth, that toward the Western seas 
Spread like a rapid flame among the auttmmal trees. 
If we look beyond mere actors in the world's great drama, to 
that drama itself, to the principles and powers w^hich have been 
at work, it is the same. These take their way in despite of the 
growth or decay of generations. Urged on, in part, by human 
effort, — in part by the directing agency of Heaven, they fulfill 
their appointed task, whether as scourges or as benefactors of 
mankind. And here how blended and confused is the vision 
that comes up before our memory. On one side all seems like 
declension. The throes which threatened to upheave the whole 
social fabric, some fifty years ago ; the wars and rumors of war, 
that engrossed the thoughts and activities of Christendom, all 
served to call forth great talents and lofty virtues, while they 
must needs have fostered into life, atrocious crimes. It is at such 
eras — eras, which stir up as well as try the souls of men, that we 
see them rise, as if with superhuman strength, to achieve an 
illustrious name for themselves, or to bestow illustrious benefits 
on others. It is then, too, that virtue straitened and confined at 
its base, builds upwards towards the skies ; while wickedness, in- 
toxicated by success, or maddened by failure, casts itself, with a 
demon's energy and desperation, on deeds of horror. These con- 
vulsions passed away, these wars hushed, there is then less occa- 
sion for great virtues, as there is less apology for great crimes. 
Then we see the insidious approaches of mediocrity. We see 
less wisdom in covmsel, as well as less boldness and prudence in 



action. We observe not that deep sense of responsibility to the 
world, to after times, to God. We see often a sad decay of pub- 
lic spirit — a sordid reference to private and personal gain poison- 
ing the veiy fountains of political action. Beneath a fair exterior 
of decorum and courtesey — with many professions, perchance, of 
patriotism and christian zeal — we see an egotism as intense as it 
is exclusive — and with all, a waning vigor of thought, a declin- 
ing activity of genius. Too much of this, we must admit, dark- 
ens our retrospect of the last half century. With what mournful 
regrets do we not look back on the simple, frugal, manly virtues 
of our fathers — virtues that could scorn the frowns of power and 
bid contemptuously away the blandishments of luxury and pride. 
With what yearning remembrances do we not turn to such pat- 
riots as Washington and Franklin, La Fayette and Jay. 

Yet, sad as in some respects the picture is, it is not without its 
bright and cheering features. The mighty energies once lavished 
on war, have not died entirely away. They are now expended 
on science, on letters and on all-subduing industry. The Bona- 
partes, Wellingtons and Bluchers of the world, have been suc- 
ceeded by its Herschells, its Leibegs, and by such men as our 
own Joseph Henry ; by its Scotts, its Irvings and its Prescotts. 
Watt has become the presiding genius of a new war, waged by 
science and art, against the perverse and refractory agencies of 
nature ; against poverty in society ; against ignorance and imbe- 
cility in man. Through the steam engine, the spinning jenny and 
the power-loom, man's physical resources have been quadrupled. 
The torch of knowledge has been applied to the elemental consti- 
tution of bodies ; to the subtle and imponderable agents that 
evolve the phenomena of light, electricity and magnetism ; to the 
kingdoms of organic nature ; to the region of pure mathematics ; 
to the physical history of the globe — and with what wondrous re- 
sults ! How has the veil been lifted from early Egyptian history, 
and with what amazing energy are the origin and vicissitudes of 
all the ditlerent tribes and races of the earth now investigated. 



With what new industry too, and with what force of genius has 
even the beaten track of history been re-traced, till it discloses a 
world of truth not before known. — Suppose a history of science 
and literature, from w^hich the discoveries of the last half century 
were to be expunged ! — Suppose a touch, by some malignant sor- 
cerer, which should divest us, in a moment, of all the new pow- 
ers and new lights which the last fifty years have given to the 
world ! 

And this culture is not one which merely enlarges knowledge 
and refines taste, while it leaves the active and moral powers of 
men paralyzed. It is not such culture as served to accelerate 
rather than retard the fall of the Western Empire, in the fifth 
century, and of the Eastern in the fifteenth. It is a manly cul- 
ture, that blends study with business ; that goes from books to 
the work-shop ; from the professor's chair to the helm of state in 
Imperial France. It is animated too with the fervor of an ear- 
nest and world-wide philanthropy. Who can deny that with 
much that is sordid and self-seeking, the age that is departing 
has yet combined much that is noble and generous ? The close 
of the eighteenth and the opening of the nineteenth century, will 
ever be remembered for their missions of charity ; for their embas- 
sies of hope to the ignorant and the sorrow-stricken. Light has 
been found even for the incurably blind. The tongue of the 
dumb has been taught to speak. The eclipsed reason, the shat- 
tered intellect, has been wooed back to sanity with an almost su- 
perhuman skill and tenderness. The voice of fraternal kindness 
of reclaiming, reforming mercy, has been heard in the captive's 
dark cell. Even the poor inebriate, has been lifted from his 
debasement, and the plague that was going forth sweeping its 
tens of thousands into a grave of infamy, has been stayed as by 
an angel's arm. The zeal of apostolic days, too, has been, in 
part, revived ; and heralds of gospel light and love are visiting 
the dark shrines where cruelty and superstition brood. Even 
with us, Christ is preached, more plainly ; and though it be some- 



10 

times of envy and sometimes in the spirit of strife, still to the joy 
of every pious heart, Christ is preached. The power of chris- 
tian, as compared with unevangelized nations, and of reformed as 
compared with unreformed Christianity, is continually extending 
as well through commerce, industry and learning, as through the 
energy of missionary zeal. Education, too, has been carried into 
the abodes of the most destitute ; and over all the christian world 
the rights of the masses, the prerogatives of man, as man, are 
making themselves felt. Relatively, the individual may become 
less, but absolutely he is greater. There may be fewer bright 
and particular stars, but it is because all are shining out with 
a clearer lustre. 

What, meanwhile, has been the progress of our College ? — 
When our brother, here, was receiving her instructions, she had 
one small edifice which stands not far from this, eastward, and 
which is now used as a cabinet maker's shop. She had an estate 
of some twenty-five thousand dollars, with two officers and forty 
students, being without library or apparatus. She has now three 
College edifices besides several smaller buildings; she has a 
landed estate of two hundred acres lying on yonder hill-side, 
over which students roam at pleaisure. Slie has productive funds 
amounting to two hundred thousand dollars, and a library, appa- 
ratus and museum, which, though wholly inadequate to the wants 
of such an institution, have still cost more than thirty thousand 
dollars. If her annals from the beginning, were divided into 
Jive periods, of ten years each, it would be found that during the 
first of those periods, extending from 1795 to 1805, she sent forth 
ninety-one alumni, with the first degree in the arts ; during the 
second decennium, extending from 1805 to 1815, she sent forth 
two hundred and eighty-three ; during the third decennial period, 
the number was six hundred arid thirteen; during the fourth, seven 
hundred and twenty-seven, and during the fifth, which ends this 
day, eight hundred and seventy-four ; making a grand total of 
two thousand, Jive hundred and eighty-eight, nearly one half as 



11 

great a number as were graduated by Harvard, the mother of 
American Colleges, m her first two hundred years.* 

Is it asked, then, whether our Alma Mater has lived in vain ? 
We point to these her children. Some have finished their earth- 
ly course and now rest from their labors ; but their memories still 
live, I cannot pronounce the names of Alexander M'Leod, John 
Younglove, William McMurray, Gilbert R. Livingston, John 
Reed, John Kirby, Daniel H. Barnes,f Walter Monteith, Ebenezer 
H. Silliman, Benjamin B. Wisner, Halsey Wood, Barnabas Bruen, 
John T. Halsey, Phineas Whipple, Daniel Waterbury, Jacob 
Irvine, Joseph J. Foote, James L. Yvonnet, Joseph Sanfoixl, Alex- 
ander Crosby, John A. Clark — names alas! (with scores more,) 
to which there can be no response except from the grave — without 
reminding former friends and classmates, of what the pulpit and 
the sanctuary lost, when these brethren were arrested in the midst 
of their early or noon-tide labors. I cannot name Morris S. Mil- 
ler, Walter Evertsen, Samuel S. Lush, John B. Yates, Charles 
A. Foote, Henry B. Davis, James O. Morse, Luther Barnard, 
Nicholas F. Beck, Ira Clisbe, Oran G. Otis, William Cockburn, 
Henry S. Coles, William Holland, Anson Brown, Joseph W. Chinn, 
Nicholas O. Sickles, John S, Lytle — but representatives of ten-fold 
more — that I do not call up before the minds of some about me, 
images of manly vigor, of extensive or rising usefulness at the 
bar, of manifold and benificent relations in life, all swallowed 
up in death. Then there come before us, unbidden, such forms 
as those of Thomas Giffbrd, David L. Grier, Samuel H. Robbins, 
Giles F. Hubbard, David Berdan, Chester Averill, Edward Sa- 



* It is hardly necessary to state, that the comparison in the text was not in- 
troduced in%-idiously, but merely to illustrate the rapidity of recent as compared 
with earlier progress in our country. The difference between colonies and inde- 
pendent states, and the position of Union College, immediately on the borders of 
the great west, wUl go far towards explaining its expeditious growth. 

t One of the best Conchologists as well as one of the most accomplished 
Schoolmasters, that our country has produced. An old pupil would have gladly 
paid an aflFectionate tribute to his memory : he has only room to refer to one of 
the published discourses of Mr. Verplanck, where the task has been worthily 
performed. 



12 

vage, Henry White, young men framed for letters and the higher 
walks of intellectual life : rare spirits, qualified alike by nature 
and study for the service of mankind, but cut off before they 
could exhibit, on the wide theatre of the world, the richness of 
their endowments. 

And back of all these — must I remember it? — there rise oth- 
ers, some graduates, some arrested by death or disgrace, before 
they reached their last commencement — young men who fell 
ignobly before the wiles of intemperance and of sinful pleasure. 
No epitaph marks the resting place of their ashes. Hearts were 
wrutig withj anguish for them, but it was not when they died. 
They had talent ; they had, many of them, noble spirits ; some 
of them had genius that might have entranced the world with 
admiration. O that I could place them before you ; first as they 
were in early dawn, bright with promise, swelling with generous 
emotions and sympathies, strong in the strength of conscious 
intellectual supremacy, the centre of fond delighted hearts: then 
as they were when clouds overspread their advancing day ; 
when the circean cup of foul enchantment was quaffed ; when 
they rushed from study to the intoxicating bowl, and from thence 
to revelry and licentiousness, until at length, shattered in health, 
palsied in intellect, indurated in heart, they fell like untimely 
fruit before the wind. And O that by the side of this work of 
woe, I could so exhibit the wine-cup, that treacherous instru- 
ment of their destruction, that you and the world would decree 
that cup's eternal banishment from academic halls. 

I may not pass from the region of the dead, without pausing 
one instant, to pay the tribute of grateful remembrance at graves, 
wliich though they bear not the names of alumni, bear those 
which are indissolubly associated in the minds of many of us 
with College life. As there are some still living, who, though 
not graduates, yet lavish service upon our Alma Mater, with a 
prodigal hand ; so there are others of the same class, now no 
more, whose labors well merit commemoration. Need I remind my 



13 

auditors of the venerable examiners, Coe, Blatchford, Proud- 
fit, DuAN'E, who, through so many years — in the case of one 
more than forty — were never once absent from their post, and 
whose presence so long shed cheerfulness over all our anniver- 
saries. Among the instructors, in addition to those who have 
been noticed by our brother, I may mention the accomplished 
and eloquent Maxcey;* the conscientious, punctual and kind 
hearted Yates ;t the active and efficient Allen ;i: the amiable 
foreigners, Van Den HEm'EL and REVNArD, and that miracle of 
industry, scientific attainment, mechanical address and far reach- 
ing mental power, combined with a child's simplicity, which 
made Rudolph Hassler, one of the most interesting of men, as 
well as one of the ablest pioneers of mathematical science in 
his adopted country. And there was one — not an instructor — 
who well deserves a place in this brief memorial ; the long-tried 
and faithful Register, Jonas Holland, than whom no College 
ever had a more upright, indefatigable, painstaking and devoted 
steward. 

" But in serving, had he rest, 
"But in blessing, was he blest." 

As thoughts of these old officers recur, we can hardly help blend- 
ing with them the graduates who have also held office, but who 
have been summoned early from their labors. Wisner.§ the 

*The literary remaios of President 3Iaxct, ^™h a sketch of his Ufe, have 
recently been published by Professor Elton, of Bro^Mi University. 

tFor a well written and affectionate tribute to the memory of Andrew 
Yates, D. D. the reader is referred to a discourse preached in the autumn of last 
year, on occasion of his death, by Rev. William H. Campbell, D. D. of Albany. 

+ Benjamin Allen, LL. D. who became Professor of Mathematics and Nat- 
ural Philosophy in 1502, resigned in 1809, and departed this life in 1836. At 
Albany, in Philadelphia, near Boston, and later at Hyde-Park, he was eminently 
successful as a Classical teacher. 

§ Rev. Benjamin B. Wisner, D. D. who died in Boston, A. D. 1835. After 
serving as Tutor for some years, he completed his theological studies at Prince- 
ton, N. J. and became Pastor of the Old South Church, Boston, in the winter of 
1819-20. He remained in charge of this parish until declining health compelled 
him to resign it in 1832, after -n-hich he became Principal Secretary- of the Ame- 
rican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. A volume in commemora- 
tion of his life and arduous public labors is believed to be in a course of prepa- 
.raUQn. 



14 

laborious student, the faithful pastor, the earnest, indefatigable 
advocate of the faith of his fathers ; Averill,* the manly, devot- 
ed officer, the fervid and accomplished scholar ; Savage,* the 
elegant, generous and enthusiastic devotee of all liberal studies 
and all high science: these, with Monteith, and Bruen, and 
others, come up from their distant graves to remind us of what 
their Alma Mater and their country lost, when they died. 

From the departed we turn to the living. Do you ask what 
our College has done for mankind ? We point to the two thou- 
sand surviving Graduates, who represent her in every part of 
our republic and in far distant lands. They have gone forth 
as well towards the rising as towards the setting sun. In three 
of the New-England states, there are leading colleges or univer- 
sities under the presidency of scholars and divines, who were 
educated here. In every one of those states, too, are men occu- 
pying leading or most useful positions in professional and active 
life, who claim the same maternity. And beyond the ocean, that 
washes our eastern border, — in India, in China, at Constantinople, 
at Jerusalem, in the islands of the Pacific, are devoted missiona- 
ries of the cross, whose hearts are with us to-day, and whose high 
enthusiasm dates, in some instances, from our halls. In every 
part of our own country, in the valley of the Mississippi, the 
southern Atlantic States, Pennsylvania, New-Jersey, Delaware, 
some of the most honored Presidents and Professors in Colleges 
and Theological Seminaries, are fellow-graduates of ours; and it 
may be doubted whether there is a district, fifty miles square, 
between this and the Rocky Mountains, inhabited by white men, 
in which some one of our number may not be found, an active 
resident. More than a thousand members of the legal profes- 
sion, six hundred clergymen, four hundred physicians and two 
hundred and fifty teachers in Academies and Schools, are or have 

*The character and services of Professors Averill and Savage, have been 
sketched with all the taste of a scholar, and all the fond enthusiasm of a friend, 
by Professor Reed, in two printed discourses. 



15 

been laboring, some in affluence and distinction, others in obscu- 
rity, but a large portion, as facts would testify, usefully and 
honorably. To these, then, our foster mother appeals, to day, as 
her memorial — as her ground of claim to the world's gratitude. 
If there are any strangers to her here, to them she would say, 
in language borrowed from the inscription that marks the resting 
place of Sir Christopher Wren, in the noble cathedral reared 
by his science and skill — si monumentum quarts, ciraimspice. 

Perhaps it may be said, that such statistics are deceptive ; 
that the able and useful citizens who have left these shades, may 
owe their capacity and their worth to other influences. That no 
college can claim merit for all the merit of its children, is certain ; 
but the concurrent judgment of mankind, must be greatly at fault 
if such seiTunaries do not exert iinmense and almost unequalled 
influence in the formation of character. Were I called upon, 
however, to designate the more specific services which have been 
rendered, here, to the cause of learning and religion, I should point, 
not so much to what has been done, as to what has been attempted. 
They who have been actors in these scenes, and who remember 
how far their performance falls behind the bright ideal of earlier 
and more sanguine years, can speak on such subjects only with 
diffidence, and with painful dissatisfaction at the retrospect of their 
best efforts. That they have desired and labored to do something 
for education and learning, for science and religion, they need 
not be ashamed to say. Education, they have striven to advance, 
both by inspiring zeal in its behalf and also by setting before the 
young, in their teaching and discipline, such methods as in their 
judgment, were best calculated to develope thought,enlarge en- 
quiry, and lay the basis of lasting habits, of self-control and self- 
improvement. Philosophy, in the true sense of the term, they 
have earnestly tried to advance ; not by teaching systems, mere- 
ly, but by laboring in humble imitation of the greatest of unin- 
spired sages, Socrates — to inculcate and cherish the comprehen- 
sive and truthful spirit of all real philosophy, whether physical 



16 

or nielaphysical.* And on the altar of our common Christianity, 
it has been their ambition to lay such offerings as would lead the 
young to reverence its truths and obey its laws ; as would induce 
them to couple fervent loyalty to their own opinions, with a for- 
bearance not less fervent towards those whose opinions may be dif- 
ferent ; as would imbue them, in fine, with that true charity which 
withholds not dark frowns from vice and moral obliquity, yet 
looks with toleration on the erring and the prejudiced. May I 
add, that in endeavoring to give a practical cast to their teachings, 
they have been animated by a desire so happily expressed in 
these words of Bacon : " That," saith he in his Advancement of 
Learning, " will indeed dignify and exalt knowledge, if contem- 
plation and action may be more nearly and strongly conjoined 
and united together tlian they have been, a conjunction like unto 
that of the two highest planets — Saturn, the planet of rest and 
contemplation, and Jupiter, the planet of civil society and ac- 
tion." 

From the past, I would now turn for a moment to X\\e future, 
and especially to the fifty years on the verge of which we stand. 
What awaits our country and the world, during that period, he 
will be slow to predict, who considers how the events of the last 
half-century have outstripped, or disappointed the hopes of the 

* The author taruiot deny liimself the })leaisure of naming three works, belong- 
ing to the higher Philosophy, which have been put forth by Graduates of Union, 
and which seem to him to illustrate fairly, the independent yet modest tone of 
philosophising, whicli has been cultivated in this place. He refers to the Ele- 
Tnenlx of Moral Science of President Wavlaxd ; tlie Ehrmtnts of Loir'c and an 
Essay on the Liberty of the Will, by Dr. H. P. Tapp.\n ; and "the Tlieology of 
Pluto, by Professor Lewls. It would be more than presumptuous to claim for the 
College, the distinguished merit of these works ; but when it is considered, that 
the text books studied by their authors, while undergraduates, were Paley and 
iStcwart, it will appear at least probable, that they acquired something more and 
better than any particular system of Psychology or Ethics. The author refers to 
the subject, in this connection, with the more freedom, because he was in no 
way connected with the philosoplucal training of either of the gentlemen named 
ui this note. 

Among the Alumni who have contributed to the mixed and Natural Sciences, 
honorable mention may be made of Daniel H. Barnes, (as a Conchologist) of 
the Brothers Beck, of Dr. Benja.miv F. Jo.si.in, of Professor Stephen Alex- 
ander, Mr. Edward Tuckerman, &c. 



17 

wisest that went before us. Should peace, however, coiuinue to 
smile on the nations, we may venture to anticipate, that industry, 
enforced by science, will continue to extend its sway ; that the 
material resources of every civilized people will rapidly increase, 
and that connected as such increase now is with democratic ten- 
dencies, and with an improved education in those who labor, the 
almost inevitable result to them must be a large accession both 
of personal comfort and of political power. That the press, too, 
will continue to wield its gigantic influence, and that talent and 
knowledge will confer a greater and greater ascendanoy on their 
possessor, may be safely assumed. Whether these industrial 
and intellectual movements will be duly qualified by the culture 
of our higher nature ; whether taste and imagination will be al- 
lowed to attain a healthy developement, and to dispense their ap- 
propriate influence ; whether the more spiritual instincts and 
capacities of our souls will be appreciated ; above all, whether the 
study and application of the natural, will be properly blended 
with a recognition, both by individuals and by nations, of the su- 
pematural; these are awful problems, the resolution of which 
must be contemplated with deep and anxious solicitude by every 
thoughtful mind. 

In respect to the future of our Alma Mater, we may speak, 
perhaps, with more confidence. I would not overlook the directing 
Providence of God, nor the mighty force of those under-currents 
in human afiairs, which, though undiscernible by us, yet often 
determine the course of the great tide. But, after all, man's 
agency is also mighty, and they who would behold great results 
Avaiting on their efforts, must count nothing impossible which is 
right. Speaking, then, in presence of her Alumni. I do not hes- 
itate to avow my conviction, that the future of their Alma Mater 
is mainly in their hands. Educated men are the appropriate 
guardians and supervisors, as they are likely to be the generous 
benefactors, of our higher seminaries ; and of all educated men 
c 



18 

the most natural and efficient supporters of a College, are its 
own children. If we, then, my friends, will but rally round our 
common mother — if we will but consider ourselves as charged 
with the care of her interests and her fame, on us will devolve 
the momentous privilege, as well as responsibility, of determin- 
ing her character and destiny. 

In order to render any institution both good and progressive, 
we should bear in mind the essential conditions of all excellence. 
On the one hand, there must be a deep sense of existing defects, 
with an earnest purpose to correct them. " Nothing will be ef- 
fected," says another, " worth having, either by an individual or 
a body of men, unless there is a constant aspiration after higher 
and higher perfection ; unless, therefore, there is a keen sense of 
our own failings utterly excluding self-complacency."* On the 
other hand, we must consider, that to be moored on the great 
stream of human progress — as Lord Bacon complained was the 
case with the universities of his time — clinging even to abuses, if 
they are hallowed by age, or upheld by indolence and self-inter- 
est, — this is not the only, nor perhaps the greatest danger of 
Colleges, in a country where they are dependent mainly on pop- 
ular support, and are directed chiefly by active, practical minds. 
As reformers, we cannot be reminded too often, that institutions 
intended to be permanent, really improve, in proportion as they 
combine the progressive and conservative spirits wisely together; 
in proportion as they anxiously preserve all that is good, while 
they labor patiently and untiringly to eradicate all that is evil. 
We should remember, too, that seminaries of learning in a eoun- 
try must have a certain assimilation with its social and political 
system ; and hence that all attempts to transplant them in their 
peculiarities, from one nation to another, will prove to be abor- 
tive. We must remember, in fine, how insensible, but active 
and powerful, influences silently incorporate themselves with 

*Newmaii, in his Introduction to Huber on the Enelish Univeri?itie3. 



19 

every establishment, — entering, as it were, into its inner life, 
forming pan of its idiosyncracy ; and that all these must be res- 
pected when we would either supply the system with aliment, or 
treat it for disease. 

He, then, who would labor well and wisely for the honour and 
advancement of a College, must keep these conditions of progress 
clearly in view. He should also set before his mind the nature 
and end of all education, and especially of that which it is the 
province of Colleges and Universities to bestow. That it is the 
object of all education to rear up minds of a large and compre- 
hensive spirit, full of reverence for the right and the true, bent 
alike on self-improvement and the improvement of the world, — is 
a fact never to be forgotten. We should consider, that we edu- 
cate men not to be pliant creatures of outward influence, but to 
be armed with a force and independence that can breast itself 
against the despotism of public opinion, against the capri- 
cious tyranny of fashion and the unrelenting exactions of party 
and of passion. We educate them that they may be thoughtful 
and active, yet contented — equal to enterprises of great pith and 
moment if duty calls, but ready, also, when God so wills, to take 
their peaceful and unhonored way through the sheltered vales 
of life. Hitherto, we have trained our children too much as if 
what the world calls success, were the grand end of life, and the 
most important boon that education can grant. Too often we 
have forgotten that all this vulgar and outward success can 
never fill up the vast desires of the human heart. '• God gave 
meat," we are told, " to Israel for their lusts," when they were 
so intent upon it, but he sent leanness miihal into their souls. It 
is always so. He who struggles hard for worldly honors or 
riches may have his reward. Probably he will, if his skill be at 
all proportioned to his efforts. But, then, he discovers, too late, 
that it is not in all these, to slake the burning thirst within. 
" The mind is its own place, and it can make a hell of heaven — 
a heaven of hell."" It is not what we eat and drink and wear — 



20 

it is not the texture of the carpets on which we tread — or the 
pomp and circumstance with which we move forth, or the sweet 
incense that comes up from the fickle voices of the multitude, 
that can make us feel permanently that "all is well with us." 
No ! the soul must be touched and tuned to finer issues. It must 
feel that there is a happiness higher and dearer tlian any than 
can be bought with money, or won in the strifes and heart-burn- 
ing rivalries of the fashionable or the ambitious. It must have 
pondered well and wisely that saying of the wise man, — he iliat 
ruleih his own spirit is better than he thai iaketh a city. It must 
know how to poise itself on its own convictions of truth and duty, 
and stand undismayed though the people rage and the kings of 
the earth imagine a vain thing. Then, though called to pass 
through fierce trials; though pain, or penury, or disgrace, be its 
portion, it shall feel more true joy than Cagsar amidst the plau- 
dits of the populace, or with a senate at his heels. Aye, and it 
shall have more true success. Galileo succeeded, though in- 
quisitions denounced and the world scorned. Ridley and Lat- 
imer succeeded, though they died by fires of martyrdom ; for those 
fires shot an unquenchable light over all England. The Apos- 
tles of our faith, like him whose name they bore, triumphed even 
in their hour of shame, and sealed in blood their best victory — a 
victory over themselves. 

But is this truth taught in our schools and at our firesides ? 
Do our children learn early that there is glory in suffering 
meekly for the truth's sake, and a peace wfiich passeth under- 
standing in faithfully fulfilling our humblest duty ? Alas ! we 
complain that the age is sordid, that the prevaling spirit about us 
is a self-seeking, time-serving one ; and yet how little do we do 
to build up a nobler spirit ? This work must begin with the 
young. It is through them that we must banish this idol-wor- 
ship, this homage towards outward dignities, this fear of man 
that bringeth a snare. It is through our schools and in our fam- 



21 

ilies that we must plant the seeds of true dignity, and of a wis- 
dom above this world. 

But what is the precise object of collegiate education ? What 
the mission to which, especially in this our own land, and in the 
nineteenth century, colleges should feel themselves called ? — The 
time has passed, when men must resort to the halls of Universi- 
ties, in order to get knowledge. With a teeming press, abound- 
ing libraries, improved schools, and habits of self-culture, much 
can be learned every where ; and in special seminaries, devoted 
to art, science or letters, more perhaps of a given subject can be 
gained than in College. But where, except within the walls of a 
good College, can young men imbued with a taste — some for one 
branch of liberal culture, some for another — be so brought togeth- 
er, that their several views and tastes shall be enlarged, and a 
comprehensive, catholic spirit of scholarship be engendered ? — a 
spirit that pursues enthusiastically its own chosen path, yet res- 
pects and appreciates those who may travel by other roads? 
Where else can we keep alive a reverence for the learning of the 
past, combined with a taste for the science and literature of the 
present ? So that the old and new learning as they have been 
sometimes called, shall not be at war — so that the speculative and 
elegant culture of earlier days, shall not come into violent and 
fatal collision with the positive and practical science of our own 
time ? Where else can we fuse, and as it were crystalize into 
one great and beautiful whole, a love for letters, a reverence for 
theology, a wise interest in philosophy, a devoted zeal for advanc- 
ing and beneficent physical science ? And then again, through 
what other agency can we train and educate men with whom, as 
they move forth, ardent but unfriended spirits that are generously 
and laboriously toiling, in solitude, after the blessings of know- 
ledge and self-culture, can measure themselves — men who will 
form a high standard, short of which no studious, thoughtful, 
aspiring mind will be willing to fall ? 



22 

So with moral and social culture. We can make energetic, 
practical men elsewhere — elsewhere we can infuse public spirit, 
and a fervid christian philanthropy. But where, except in sem- 
inaries devoted to a high general cultivation, can we avoid the 
danger of making partial, one-sided, or bigotted actors in the 
great work of social and religious progress. Where else can we 
teach the young that lesson so often forgotten, that it is not the 
exclusive privilege of any one principle, or any one agency, 
to exalt and bless the world. That in order to the strength, 
stability and improvement of our times, we need the united aid 
of good laws upheld by good morals, of enlarged and wide- 
spread education, of prevailing temperance, of a refined and 
elegant culture, of free and universal industry — the whole to be 
crowned and hallowed, animated and informed by the living 
light of Cijrist's Gospel. " Whatever the world may opine," 
says Erasmus, " he who hath not meditated much on God, the 
Human Mind, and the Summum Bonum, may possibly make a 
thriving Earthworm, but will most indubitably make a blunder- 
ing Patriot and a sorry Statesman." 

It is in Colleges, too, that we gather the sons of the affluent 
and indigent, as members of the same republic of letters, aspi- 
rants after the same intellectual distinctions ; the one being sub- 
jected to salutary hardships and restraints, the other, admitted to 
inestimable privileges. Here, also, we organize a society so 
mixed in character, so diversified in tastes, so various in the des- 
tination of its members, that it aflTords a miniature world, in 
which the young man before entering the dusty and stormy arena 
of life, trains and invigorates his powers ; learns modesty by 
measuring himself againt superiors ; self reliance by being 
thrown oif from the support of parents and tutors ; and a decent 
regard to the opinions, as well as a due conformity to the prac- 
tice of others. And to conclude, here we deal with the great 
problems of humanity, as expounded by history and philosophy ; 
here we learn, by study, the extent of our own ignorance, the diffi- 



23 

culties which invest even the most plausible opinions in social and 
political science, and the forbearance with which we should look 
on those who may not have reached the same conclusions or 
espoused the same party. 

But, if such be the office and mission of Colleges, it is easy 
to see the goal for which they should strive. They are places 
sacred to knowledge . Hence knowledge of every kind, should be 
honored and cherished by them ; no branch, whether of liberal 
learning or of useful science, should be disparaged or neglected. 
They are places sacred, again, to the formation of robust, intellec- 
tual Jmbits; to the creation of a deep, w failing thirst for knowledge 
and letters. Hence the branches pursued by any one pupil, 
should not be so numerous, nor should the mode of study adopted 
be so hasty or superficial, that these paramount ends can be en- 
dangered. They are places set apart, moreover, to original and 
learned investigation, in which human knowledge is to be enlarged, 
and the deep themes of philosophy discussed anew. Hence they 
should be frequented by men of earnest investigating minds, who 
will add to the daily toils of teaching, the nobler though more 
exhausting toils of independent research and inquiry. " There 
were under the law," saith one, " both daily sacrifices and free- 
will offerings ; the one proceeding upon ordinary observance, the 
other upon a devout cheerfulness." In like mamier there belong 
to professions from their followers and votaries, and especially to 
the profession of letters, -' presents of affection" as well as - tri- 
butes of duty."'* 

Are such services to be exacted from Colleges ? Then we 
must supply the means through which alone they can be wor- 
thily rendered. We must provide for Instructors such support, 
that they shall not be compelled, when they take upon them the 
vows of study, to take the vows of perpetual poverty also. We 
must surround them with books and other apparatus of investi- 

* Bat-on'e AdvaiK-ement of Leamins. 



24 

gation, as indispensable to tiie true scholar, as tools are to the 
mechanic. Deprived of these, the most generous enthusiasm 
will languish ; and he who, under happier auspices, had been a 
noble teacher, and perhaps a profound philosopher or scholar, may 
gradually subside, out of pure vexation and despondence, into a 
formal pedagogue or an idle sinecurist. Give your instructors 
liberally, munificently, all requisite means both for teaching and 
for original investigation ; and then see to it that they are faithful 
stewards. Cicero said of Cato, that his divine and excellent 
qualities were his own ; his defects sprang from his preceptors. 
See to it that the preceptors, whom you encourage to remain 
within walls dedicated to Collegiate learning, be not men who 
overlay the good gifts of nature, with their own distorted repre- 
sentations of truth or goodness. See to it, above all, that they be 
men whose examples will form a safe guide to the young and 
susceptible spirit. Keep such spirits, even as you would keep 
your own cherished child from the fabled touch of the basalisk, — 
Oh ! keep young men, confided to our Colleges to be trained for 
weal or woe unspeakable, from the contaminating deadly touch 
of men, who, clothed with the name and sacred authority of a 
teacher, and recommended, perhaps, by some grace and talent, 
carry into the lecture room, and into their daily walks, loose 
principles illustrated by looser practice. 

But I have trespassed too long upon your patience, I did 
intend to have dwelt at some length upon the debt which we all 
owe to our nursing mother. That debt we discharge, not only 
when we labour directly for her, but when in the spirit of ingen- 
uous scholars and of christian men, we labour for mankind. 
She trains up sons in the spirit of a Roman matron, that she may 
devote them on the altar of her country and of humanity ; and 
she feels most honored when they adorn the age and place in 
which they live by public services. (Contributions to the intel- 
lectual wealth of the world, too, are not beyond the means of the 
humblest oi them all. If we would but rescue the hours which 



25 

are now wasted in idleness or in idle pursuits, and devote them to 
the steady and systematic prosecution of some one study, what 
might not the least favored of us achieve ? Never had educated 
men a nobler work, than that to which the American Scholar and 
Patxiot has been called in this, our day. In other and older lands 
prescription or arbitrary rule limits the range and often paralyzes 
the power of the student's mind. But here we have a wide 
world invi ting us to explore without restraint, and to appropriate 
without fear. Here we have all nature not only, but we have, 
with the stores of ancient and of English learning, the accumulat- 
ed treasures of the French and German mind, with no traditionary 
prejudices or political apprehensions to deter us from accepting 
their aid. We may — ^it is our duty to — ^lay them all under con- 
tribution ; but it is also our duty to see that when they have 
yielded to us their choicest gifts, those gifts are remoulded ; 
that they receive the new forms that belong to a new world, and 
become stamped with the true American and the true Christian 
die. And not only are books flocking to us from everv' quarter 
of the world — men, families come faster. Let them come ! We 
have room for the starving labourers of over-burdened lands ; 
we have hearts, we trust, large enough to give them welcome, if 
they come in peace and quietness. But let us see to it, that as 
soon as they touch these shores, they are brought into contact, 
directly as well as indirectly, with the true spirit of our social 
and political life. Let us see to it, that they feel the influence of 
educated, enlarged minds — minds that seek only to secure their 
loyalty to the whole country and to their own true welfare. Let 
them be brought to read our literature, to do justice to our gener- 
ous and comprehensive system of public instruction, and to rear 
their children in a knowledge of the language, laws, and true 
interests of the coimtry of their adoption. And as generation 
after generation rises to succeed them, let us see to it, that so far 

D 



26 

as we leave behind us an influence in our writings, or in our ac- 
tions, it shall be an influence for God and the right. 

The hours allotted to this exercise draw to a close. Gladly 
would I give utterance to other thoughts that crowd upon me ; 
but I forbear. One word to those by whom I am surrounded. 
And first to the venerable men who must soon become inhabi- 
tants of the spirit-land, let nie say — ' As you go to rejoin our 
brethren who have preceded you on the great road that we all 
travel, tell them of the scenes of this day. It may be, indeed, 
that of these scenes they are invisible, but deeply interested spec- 
tators. I love to think of them as hanging fondly over these solem- 
nities, as gazing with tearful emotion on these re-unions and re- 
cognitions, as joining fervently, though inaudibly, in these strains 
of prayer and praise. But if it be not so, then make known to 
them the incidents of this day. Report the progress which our 
common mother has made since they received her last farewell 
on their graduating day, or since they were called from time to 
mix in the scenes and employments of eternity. Tell them that 
you have not returned to these shades without manifesting your 
own love and duty, nor without charging it on those who may 
survive, to be mindful of theirs. Tell them of what is expected 
and hoped from this school of the prophets, this nursery of scho- 
lars and statesmen; and of the resolutions this day made that her 
future shall not be unworthy of her past. — Ye who are approach- 
ing or have reached the meridian of life, remember that yours is 
the heat and burden of the day. Make it your generous purpose 
that our honored parent shall not be forgotten, and that when 
another fifty years shall have run their course, and yet more 
multitudinous throngs shall come up here to close her first cen- 
tennial period — that then, though you may not live, your works 
shall remain — that it shall not be your fault if observatories do 
not crown the summits of yonder hills, if libraries teeming and 
bursting with the hoarded treasures of the world's science, do not 



27 

fill yonder halls ; if teachers faithful, eloquent, enthusiastic, do 
not occupy yonder lecture rooms.' 

' And you, my youthful hearers, who shall be permitted, like 
our aged and honored brother that has stood before you to-day, 
to live through the intervening period, and come to another great 
Jubilee : who shall then find that your youth has become age, 
your impetuosity gray-haired experience, and your overflowing 
vigor and self-confidence, a chastened sense of weakness and 
decay, — see to it that you are then able to report well of your- 
selves and of your Alma Mater. Be able to point to the sub- 
stantial tokens of good will that she has received at your hands, 
and thus, — -to the hundreds of young men that will surround you, 
with affectionate respect and revei'ence, be able to say, in terms 
more expressive and eloquent than speech— Go thou and do likewise. 
Tell them from us — we send our message forward fifty years ; 
tell them that we pass on to tliem the torch of knowledge ; the 
fires burning bright on christian altars ; the spirit yet unquench- 
ed of American patriotism. Tell them that we bid them guard 
the sacred trust with unslumbering vigilance ; we charge them 
that they do valiantly for the truth, for their country, and for 
God. We charge them that they forget not this guardian 
of their youth j that they make her third semi-centennary better 
and nobler than even the second or the first ; that they raise yet 
higher this memorial of the faith and patriotic zeal of their 
brethren and fathers ; and that when at length they go to rest, 
beneath the shadows of the grave, they leave behind them fra- 
grant, honored names, which " the world will not willingly let 
die." ' 

And now our task is done. He who has occupied your time 
so long, feels that this is a memoral^le day for him. After spend- 
ing amidst these shades the better portion of his life, he is about 
to exchange them for other and more trying scenes.* Will it be 

♦Having accepted an invitation from the Diocese of Pennsylvania, the 
author's official connection with Union College terminated on the day this Dis- 
course was delivered. 



28 

trespassing too much on your patience, or on the most delicate 
propriety, if he presumes, for one instant, to blend his personal 
remembrances with the prayer which, in your name, he would 
fondly offer for this temple of learning — this sanctuary of the 
faith. He came here, it is now nearly thirty years since. Like 
hundreds who hear his voice, he has since buried most of those 
towards whom his heart then beat most tenderly. The images 
of others, "the loved and lost," will come up at such a time and 
mingle with the new faces and the new forms that throng around 
us. He came a stranger, but he found a home. He came poor 
in the world's goods, and poorer still in the wisdom that passeth 
riches ; but he found knowledge, employment, and the benig- 
nant light of Christ's religion. He found a treasure which shone 
for years the light of his dwelling, and which, though it has been 
called to brighter and more congenial worlds, has left behind it 
remembrances and influences that can never perish.* Here he 
has spent tlie best years, and here, perhaps, he has applied the most 
useful energies of his life. This peaceful scenery, this unsur- 
passed landscape, these halls for prayer and recitation, these fond 
associations, this treasured dust — he leaves with pangs which they 
only can know, who know what it is to part with home, and 
friends, and loved pursuits, when the noon of life is past. He 
goes, leaving behind him those towards whom his deepest affec- 
tions must ever turn. He goes, sorrowing that he has not served 
our common mother better in years that are past ; sorrowing that 
he has not some worthy offering of his gratitude and love, to lay 
on her altars to-day, and breathing from his inmost heart, this 
prayer in her behalf — ' Honored Parent ! Heretofore you have 
been the abode of religious toleration — may you be so still ! Thus 
far you have been the nursery of free spirits, of a comprehensive 
and large-minded but reverent philosophy — thus may it always 
be. Here has parental kindness and forbearance ever tempered the 

* Sarah Maria Potter, only daughter of President Nott, was suddenly 
snatched from a world which she blessed and adorned, March 16, 1839. 



29 

exercise of authority, and a wakeful parental vigilance been 
applied to the forming of youthful character. Be it never oth- 
erwise ! and when the term of fifty years has again rolled away, 
and your children, and your children's children, even to the fifth 
and sixth generation, shall come back to celebrate your praise and 
write up your first centennial records, — may it be found, that this 
is then the home of brave and true men — of men braver, truer, 
holier than we ; that better and wiser spirits have risen to direct 
your counsels, and that a higher scholarship and a deeper sanc- 
tity are sending from these shrines rich blessings on the world.' 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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011 792 515 8 



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